Philadelphia Phillies' Jimmy Rollins, center, celebrates with Kyle Kendrick, left, Hunter Pence and John Mayberry Jr. (15) after hitting a one-run single to win the game against the San Francisco Giants' in the twelfth inning of a baseball game on Sunday July 22, 2012, in Philadelphia. The Phillies won 4-3. (AP Photo/H. Rumph Jr)

PHILADELPHIA — You can break a dollar bill with four quarters. You can break a nickel with five pennies. But how do you break a Penny?

The answer: Make him pitch in extra innings.

Brad Penny might be a veteran, but until this season his baseball calling was to pitch every fifth day. So when the Phillies and Giants had a second straight bonus-baseball hootenanny at Citizens Bank Park Sunday and San Francisco was pressed into going to its bullpen newbie for the 12th inning, the Phils had an opportunity at hand.

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Lo and behold, they got it done this time.

After Carlos Ruiz drew a one-out walk, Laynce Nix marked his return from the disabled list with a single that allowed Jimmy Rollins to celebrate his first time playing in front of his infant daughter with a walk-off hit to center as the Phillies salvaged a win in the series, 4-3, and snapped a seven-game losing skid at home.

“My wife said she was here long enough to see (Kyle Kendrick get the win),” Rollins said.

The Phillies’ bullpen has had the staying power of two-week-old milk sitting in the sun for most of the season. But behind 2 1/3 solid innings by Kendrick (4-8) after a dominating ninth by Antonio Bastardo and dutiful work by rookie Jeremy Horst, the beleaguered relief crew finally found a way to hang in there long enough for the other team to reach its own crisis point.

For the Giants, their Code Red option was Penny, a bloated shell of the horse he was in the Marlins’ rotation years ago. To Rollins, facing a pitcher he knows well in a situation that pitcher finds foreign amounted to blood in the water.

“I was looking forward to it,” Rollins said. “I’ve faced Brad Penny a lot when, I was younger -- when we both were younger I guess -- so I had a good idea what he was going to do.

“That is not a role that he is used to, so you’re probably not going to get the best Brad Penny, but he got a pitch out over the plate and I was able to put it in center field.”

Relief work is a role Kendrick finally might be getting used to. He has pitched 18 2/3 consecutive innings without allowing a run and hasn’t allowed the shift to relief work with Roy Halladay back to cause him to break stride.

“I just feel good right now pitching,” he said, “It doesn’t matter right now where it’s at.

“You’re just trying to pick each other up. That’s the main thing. You want to keep the zeroes going.”

It was just the third win in 12 extra-inning games for the Phillies (42-54), who remain on a collision course with the unknown July 31, the non-waiver trade deadline. Although the players continue to speak about furious late-season rallies in recent history, it’s tough to imagine general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. keeping the status quo.

Will the eight days between involve the departure of free-agents-to-be? One of them made the start Sunday, and if a contender believes Joe Blanton has more efforts like this in him, perhaps he made his last start with the Phils.

Blanton went eight innings, allowing three runs in a solid, efficient start. He would have liked to have not surrendered a second home run of the game to Nate Schierholtz in the eighth inning, after the San Francisco outfielder led off the afternoon with a solo shot.

“I think we’re here to play the best we can,” Blanton said in regards to trade possibilities, “and whatever unfolds it’s out of our hands. It’s something I’m kind of used to. I got used to it in Oakland. Oakland is an organization that trades a lot, so it doesn’t affect me one way or another anymore.”

While Schierholtz single-handedly took a winning decision away from Blanton, at least his counterpart and former A’s teammate Barry Zito had a problematic nemesis of his own.

That was John Mayberry Jr., who also had two solo homers, one in the fourth inning to tie the game, 2-2, and a carbon-copy to open the seventh that put the Phils up, 3-2.

Mayberry and Schierholtz had nine homers between them this season entering the day.

When it boiled down to it, the game became a battle of wills between bullpens. And the Phillies -- even with Jonathan Papelbon scratched following a long appearance the night before — had a rare moment of pride Sunday.

“It was good to end that (losing) streak at home,” Rollins said. “It’s not too late, no. Colorado won 19 in September and found themselves in the wildcard. Those stories are still around baseball.”

Yes, teams have been able to make a change in their fortunes. But for the most part, teams in the Phillies’ predicament are trying to change a C-note with nothing more than a pair of scissors at their disposal.